An Alabama woman born with two wombs is pregnant with twins who are housed in each of her uterine cavities.
Kelsey Hatcher, 32, who tells her story on her Instagram account “doubleuhatchlings,” has known since she was 17 that her uterus is “didelpho,” meaning it has two cavities.
According to estimates, around 0.3% of women are in this situation.
It was during a routine ultrasound at eight months in May that Mrs Hatcher, already a mother of three, learned that she was not only carrying twins, but that each fetus had its own womb.
“We were blown away! During this first ultrasound, we laughed A LOT,” she wrote on Instagram.
“Most likely, she ovulated separately and one egg went down each fallopian tube,” Shweta Patel, the obstetrician-gynecologist who treats Hatcher at the Mother and Child Center, told Children’s University of Alabama at Birmingham.
It is likely, he continued, “that the spermatozoa ascended into each uterus and that fertilization took place separately.”
A double uterus is often associated with a high risk of complications, but her first three children were born healthy and full-term.
Pregnancy in both uteri is extremely rare. The affected person said doctors told him there was a one in 50 million chance of such an eventuality occurring.
The best-known case occurred in Bangladesh in 2019, when Arifa Sultana, then 20, gave birth to two healthy babies 26 days apart.
Kelsey Hatcher is hoping to give birth to “babies A and B” naturally on her estimated due date, Christmas Day. Both are doing great so far.
The uteruses could contract at different times, minutes, hours or even days. Kelsey and her husband Caleb know a c-section or two may be necessary.
